(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and a method of driving the display apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a display apparatus that effectively prevents malfunctions caused by signal modulation due to static electricity, and a method of driving the display apparatus.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) are becoming increasingly popular for use as a light source of a backlight unit of a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), due to several advantages that LEDs provide over other light sources, such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps (“CCFLs”), for example.
When a backlight unit includes the light emitting diodes as a light source, the backlight unit is typically divided into light emitting groups for purposes of performing a dimming function in the backlight unit. More specifically, for local dimming, a liquid crystal display panel is divided into brightness control areas, and the light emitting groups are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence with the brightness control areas. Accordingly, a brightness of each light emitting group is controlled according to a gray-scale value of a corresponding brightness control area.
A brightness of each light emitting group is controlled according to a duty ratio of a driving voltage applied thereto. To control the duty ratio of the driving voltage, a backlight driving circuit receives a brightness control signal, which includes brightness information corresponding to the brightness control area, from an external device.
The backlight driving circuit receives the brightness control signal in series or, alternatively, in parallel. Generally, a required number of signal transmission lines is smaller for a serial transmission method than for a parallel transmission method. However, the serial transmission method is more vulnerable to static electricity than the parallel transmission method. Thus, there is a need to develop a backlight driving circuit that is capable of using serial transmission, but overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies, e.g., vulnerability to static electricity, and the adverse affects resulting from the static electricity.